19 March 2010

The Landmarks Commission allowed Norah Jones to bust out seven new windows on the side of her newly bought Cobble Hill townhouse—not ten, like she initially wanted. But it looks like she managed to get an eighth new light source in there anyway.

Unless, I'm mistaken, I spy a new skylight through one of the newly installed top-floor windows. Jeez, what's she gonna do up there that she needs so much light? Paint watercolors?

21 comments:

Just when I thought your Norah Jones fixation couldn't get any weirder or more trivial, you prove me wrong. So she has a skylight. Who cares? Having lived in a place with skylights before, and not having them now, I kind of miss them. And if I could afford a place with skylights, I'd move there tomorrow. Skylights are nice.

What is your point with this nonsense? You've said before that you're just trying to be funny, but your Norah-Jones-and-her-windows postings are an exercise in serial idiocy. Not funny, just stupid.

Carl, dear, the blog is about historical structures and establishments. When a celebrity buys an historical building and makes major changes to it, that's the kind of thing I'd expect to see in a blog like this. If it were being covered by the NY Times every couple days, that's what I'd call unwarranted.

Yipes! Do not let the negative comments posted here squash any future attempts at humor.I think maybe a good night sleep, and an effort to get up on the right side of the bed, may help some.Of course it's not our business but who decides that?, for one reason or another we all visited this post...imagine if we were called idiots for doing so?

Now how am I supposed to know I don't like a post until I read it? And what is this "Don't leave comments" stuff? Aren't you interested in promoting frank and open dialogue?

Yes, you're perfectly within your rights to cover this story as extensively as you have. But I'm also within my rights to state that zooming into someone's windows with a telephoto lens so closely that you can see their interior furnishings is weird, stalker-like behavior.

It's a series of window on the face of a building, John, that were put there out of variance from usual landmarking guidelines. That is my interest. Whether the building belongs to a man, a woman, or a "female celebrity" is beyond the point.

I'm sure you and I live in completely different worlds, but it's one person's (in this case, Norah Jones) belief that their wishes are more important than those of an entire historic district that I find to be the creepy behavior here.

I do find the whole desperate search for a provocative 'blog worthy' bite a bit depressing in the aggregate. Oddly, the Venn diagram of people obsessed with celebrity homes like this tend to have a strong crossover with those who are paranoid about google street view. tee frickin' hee.

...and putting windows on the side of a building; an action considered quite normal in most communities falls within this definition of cretinous, uninspired, greedy, or soulless? Look, you post the opinion, you turn comments on, it obviously resonates with people, I don't see why you want to hector people into shutting up about it.

I think a lot of people who didn't grow up in houses in east coast cities find the lack of light in the middle of those homes makes them gloomy and dark. And that's probably particularly true if you grew up somewhere very sunny like Ms. Jones did (born in NYC, but raised in Dallas). I know my mother, from Michigan, always complains about how dark my place is when she visits me.

As for the posting controversy, I think punching several windows in a historic home in a historic district is indeed interesting and news-worthy within the scope of this blog. The fact that she's a celebrity is germane to me because one has to wonder if she would have gotten the variance from the historic district zoning otherwise.

Oh ,and there's a big difference between holding onto the urban character of our cities by preserving historical structures and caring about the aesthetic integrity of neighborhoods and trapping the city in amber. And if you want to see why its important you can come to my Queens neighborhood where some older buildings and houses are being productively reused while many others are being torn down and replaced with the plainest, ugliest, and most out-of-character structures imaginable.

OK, it's finally time to put the myth that Norah Jones got special treatment from LPC to rest.

Here is a link (pdf) to LPC's rules:http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/pubs/rules.pdf

Go to page 26 in the pdf (page 2-17 in the document). You will see that there are rules for approving new window openings on visible secondary facades like the ones on Jones' house.

Basically, according to the rules, if the proposed openings generally form a consistent pattern, and the new openings and sashes "do not detract from the significant architectural features of the building," then they fit LPC's rules and will be approved.

Norah Jones' windows meet these criteria. LPC would have approved these windows if it was your house, or my house, or Norah Jones' house. If someone can show me how Norah Jones got special treatment here, I'd love to see it.

I'm tired of hearing people talking about the "variance" she got to install these windows. She didn't, and that's that. So stop it.

The original, running Jeremiad on the vestiges of Old New York as they are steamrolled under or threatened by the currently ruthless real estate market and the City Fathers' disregard for Gotham's historical and cultural fabric. Est. January 2006.Contact Me

About Me

I have lived in New York City since 1988 and earn my bread as a writer. I began this blog in January 2006. Beyond that, don't be so nosy.
"I am not a pessimist; to perceive evil where it exists is, in my opinion, a form of optimism."
—Roberto Rossellini